I bet the industry is more concerned about discovery . . . than it is about losing . . .

[AndyS]

There is reason for hope in the fight against the gun industry and gun culture but it takes an achingly long time to see progress.

We all remember Sandy Hook. In 2014 they filed a lawsuit against Remington. It bounced from appeals court to appeals court until the Connecticut Supreme court ruled it can proceed. Seven years in the making.

In 2019 a San Diego Synagogue sued Smith and Wesson after one of their products was used to kill one and wound three in a shooting. This year courts ruled that the suit can proceed. Three years in the making.

However, the lawsuit that has gun makers shaking in their collective boots is Gary Indiana vs Glock, Smith & Wesson, and Beretta. The Gary suit alleges that the nation’s largest handgun manufacturers have turned a blind eye to the diversion of guns into the criminal market. They are seeking 25 years of marketing and sales information. The suit is now poised to move to discovery. In September a judge will decide if the manufacturers have to turn over that 25 years of communications, marketing strategy and information on gun trafficking.

“I bet the industry is more concerned about what might turn up in discovery than it is about losing the case in the long run,” said Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America. “They’re fearful of the example of Big Tobacco, which wasn’t brought down by lawsuits for defective products, but rather by the reputational hit from tremendous amounts of discovery information that showed tobacco-makers were hiding evidence of the dangers of cigarettes.”

22 years in the making.

The gears of justice grind painfully slowly but there is a possibility that the entire gun industry will soon be ground between them.

Sandy hook families vs Remington 2014
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/gun-industry-lawsuit-re-sandy-hook-shooting-in-usa/

San Diego synagogue shooting 2019
https://apnews.com/article/business-religion-shootings-california-ca-state-wire-7cbfe50bf65d3e09a420768c4e46e982

Gary Indiana vs gun makers 1999
https://www.thetrace.org/2021/07/glock-smith-wesson-beretta-sued-indiana-plcaa-documents/